Tried Meditation and Gave Up? These 5 Reasons Might Bring You Back

Let’s get this out of the way first: you don’t need to sit cross-legged on a mountaintop or clear your mind of every single thought to meditate. You don’t need incense, an app subscription, or a full hour carved out of your day. You just need... a few minutes. And maybe a willingness to stop scrolling and check in with yourself.

If meditation has always felt a little intimidating or pointless, you’re not alone. But these are five reasons I keep coming back to it—even when I fall out of practice, even when it feels hard, even when I think I’m “not doing it right.”

1 — It reconnects you with your why.

So much of our day is driven by momentum — we’re doing, responding, reacting. Meditation slows the roll. It gives you space to remember why you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place. You start making choices based on alignment instead of habit.

2 — It strengthens your mind like a muscle.

Meditation isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about becoming more yourself. With regular practice, you’ll likely start to notice less reactivity, more clarity, and a greater ability to respond instead of react. That’s not magic—it’s your brain forming new patterns.

3 — It helps you notice your patterns

When you sit quietly each day, even for a few minutes, you start to notice the same thoughts popping up. The same worries. The same inner narratives. It’s like getting a front-row seat to your mental habits. Once you start noticing, you can start shifting. That’s the part no one talks about — how meditation gives you insight into why you think, react, or feel the way you do.

4 — It improves your relationship with discomfort.

Uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, or physical sensations often lead us to distract, avoid, or numb out. Meditation helps you sit with those things—even if only for a moment—without judgment. That’s not just useful for mental health, it’s also a serious tool for personal growth.

5 — It’s a moment to come back to yourself.

In a world that constantly pulls your attention outward, meditation is one of the few practices that consistently brings you inward. You don’t need to “achieve” anything in that moment. Just reconnecting to your breath, your body, or even the present moment is enough.

Final Thought

You don’t have to meditate every day to benefit from it. You don’t even have to enjoy it right away. But if you give yourself permission to try—without needing to be perfect—it might surprise you how grounding it can feel.

Even a messy, inconsistent practice counts. (Especially that kind.)